HBO’S CEO doesn’t really mind if you share your HBO Go password

In today’s digital streaming world, a simple username and password login has negated the need to collect stacks of physical DVDs. The right login credentials can give you access to a wealth of TV shows and movies, all ready to be beamed to your home over the Web.

One of the many on-demand services competing for your attention is HBO Go. HBO’s CEO Richard Plepler has been chatting to Buzzfeed about the service, and provided a refreshingly frank take on the issue of users sharing login details with family and friends.

“It’s not that we’re unmindful of it, but it has no real effect on the business,” Pleper said. In fact, he thinks it could lead to more subscribers, and acts as a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers.”

“It presents the brand to more and more people,” added Pleper. “What we’re in the business of doing is building addicts, building video addicts… and the way we do that is by exposing our product and our shows and our brand to more and more people.”

So while it’s not exactly a free pass to share your HBO Go password with the people you know, it seems the powers-that-be are fairly philosophical about the practice. Pleper also addressed the possibility of one day unbundling HBO Go from the HBO cable subscription.

“HBO Go is value-added — what you want to watch,” he said. “Right now, that’s the right model for us. Are we always thinking about optionality, of course we are always thinking about optionality… if the arithmetic changes and made sense in a different way we are not going to be caught without the ability to pivot.”